Monday, April 27, 2015

Before 1948, mandate
Palestine witnessed growth in football, boxing, wrestling and weightlifting. It is not known
exactly when and how wrestling entered Palestine, however, presumably it
started in early 1920’s when sports became a form of
modernity. Abu al-Jibin mentioned that a traditional
wrestling called al-Tabban al-Arabihad existed in Palestine long time ago.[1]
Some news show that wrestling in Palestine started in the twenties after the
establishment of social-athletic clubs in cities as Jaffa, Haifa, Jerusalem and
Gaza. No doubt, that Palestinians were influenced by the “athletic culture” (which they could survive without)
brought by the British in early 1920’s, and by Egypt which witnessed a remarkable
development in sports in the thirties and forties of the past century.

In June 1934, Difa
mentioned that a competition was held at the ground of Islamic Sports Club in Jaffa to
determine the champion of Palestine. Few wrestlers took part, among them the
champions of Luda Omar Lahham and Yousef al- Maleh, in addition to the champion of Ramla Muhammad al-Awadi (Abu Hadila).
However, this competition ended with a fight. [2]
Al-Awadi was a well-known wrestler, he competed with Arab and
Jewish wrestlers.

In 1934, Shabab al-Arab was
established, directly, it included wrestling as one of its main athletic activities.
Reviewing Filastin and Difa one can find many announcements about
challenging in wrestling. Some of these announcement requested names,
addresses, clubs’ affiliation and weights of those willing to compete. In
November 1936, Islamic Sports Club of Jaffa invited boxers, wrestlers and
weightlifters to attend a meeting for a preparation for Palestine championship.
(it is not known if this championship took place or not due to the political conditions that resulted from the great 1936 -1939 Revolt).

In December 1936, the athletic
committee of Islamic Sports Club of
Jaffa assigned Dr. Haqqi Mazin (a dentist originally from Turkey) as its athletic
director and boxing coach, and Ramez Hashem as coach for weightlifting, in
addition to Abdel Latif Siksek for wrestling. These three sought to promote
sports in this club. In November 1937, Jamiyyat al-Ummal Al-Arabia (Arab
Workers Society) in Haifa held a meeting in boxing, wrestling and weightlifting
where its members took part beside Islamic Sports Club, Shabab al-Arab, Orthodox
Club and Nadi al-Uruba. The funds of these competitions were allocated for
aiding the people of Syria who had been
afflicted by floods.[3]

In January 1942, meetings in
wrestling were held for supporting Arab volunteers of WWII. In Roman style feather-weight,
Abdel Rahman al-Abudi defeated Muhammed Hafez. And in Arabic free style Mustafa
al-Halawani – champion of Syria and Lebanon - was defeated by Muhamad Abu Hadla
from the town of Ramla. The strange thing in this meeting that the mayor of
Ramla Sheikh Mustafa al-Khairi signed a statement witnessing the winning of Abu
Hadla and handed to him.[4]

Jam’yyat al-Ummal al-Arabiyya
Arab Workers Society (established in 1925) was the
major Arab workers union in Palestine and had nineteen branches in most
Palestinian cities, it was active in sports especially in wrestling and
weightlifting. Among its well-known wrestlers were Suleiman al-Bibi from
Haifa and Muhammed Dibah.

It’s worth mentioning that wrestling was included in the committee of
(boxing, wrestling and weightlifting) and was affiliated with Palestine Sports
Federation (established in 1931, functioned until late 1930’s, re-established
in 1944). In July 1945 this federation organized a meeting between Palestinian
and Egyptian weightlifters and wrestlers at the
stage of Cinema al-Hamra under the auspices of the mayor of Jaffa Omar al-Bitar. Egyptian weightlifters
such as Mukhtar Hussein (international champion) Ahmad Jeisa, Khader al-Tuni (Olympic
champion, 1936-gold medalist) took part. Among Palestinian wrestlers were
Mustafa al-Habbab, Suleiman al-Bibi, Muhammed al-Awadi (Abu Hadla), Hasan Ismiyya and
Hussein Bushnaq.[5]

In November
1945, the committee of (boxing, wrestling and weightlifting) Lajnat al-Al’ab
al-Thaqila asked the Egyptian coach Nazmi Makhail to coach its members in
Roman wrestling for one month.[6]

Shortly before the break out of the confrontations between Arabs and Jews
in Palestine at the end of 1947 (29 November), Palestine Sports Federation was planning to organize competitions
in the areas (Jaffa, Jerusalem, Gaza, Haifa, Galilee, Nablus) in wrestling, weightlifting
and boxing. Then champions of these area would compete among themselves to
determine the champion of Palestine.[7]

After
the Nakba

After 1948, many Palestinian wrestlers appeared on the arena in
Palestine and in the Diaspora, among them the famous Palestinian Lebanese
wrestlers George Dirani and Nubulsi brothers.In early 1974, the Palestine Wrestling Federation PWF was founded, it
joined the Arab WF in 1974, the International WF in 1980, and in 1982 the Asian WF. This federation was chaired by
Muhammad al-Bayari 1978 – 1980. It was based in Beirut. Due to the civil war in
Lebanon it moved to Baghdad where it was
chaired by Farid As-Sayyed.

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HISTORY OF PALESTINE SPORTS

Established in November 2009, this blog aims to introduce readers to the developments of sports in Palestine. HPS is concerned about highlighting and documenting Palestinian sports since the first decade of the 20th century to the present date, which will require contributions from all researchers and historians.For information, please contact;Issam Khalidiiskhalidi55@hotmail.com

Issam Khalidi, an independent scholar, lives in Monterey CA, US. Born in Jerusalem, Palestine. Received his PhD in 1987 from the Institute of Physical Culture, Moscow, Russia.

Articles and opinions published on this blog reflect the views of their authors.